AMD conquers Intel territory: Ryzen 5 5600 vs. Core i5-12400(F)

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 in detail

In the cheaper mid-range of processors, only Intel has been involved in recent years, gaining a lot of popularity in the segment of the cheapest Core i5s. Similar to the popularity that the Ryzen 5 3600 once had. Since its release, however, Intel has turned around three generations of competing processors to get on the proverbial horse. To knock it off it though, AMD is coming up with the Ryzen 5 5600.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 in detail

Just when some might not have hoped, AMD has finally expanded its Ryzen 5 processor lineup before moving to a new platform (AM5). And straight with two models – the 5500 (this model line was a generation for the OEM market only) and the 5600. In this this test, we’ll be interested in the higher-numbered Ryzen 5, the successor to the bestseller (3600), the 5600.

One Ryzen 5 (5600X) has been around since the beginning, as AMD released Vermeer processors, but that one was not direct competition for the most affordable Core i5. This due to the significantly higher price. The Ryzen 5 5600 is cheaper, somewhere between the Core i5-12400F (without iGPU) and the Core i5-12400 (with iGPU). For slightly cheaper motherboards with AMD B550 chipset (than Intel B660), that 20-euro price difference for the processor itself is lost. Combined with a low-end B550 or A520 motherboard (even these boards start with similar features at lower prices than the H610), the AMD platform as a whole can even cost less.

Compared to the 5600X, the 5600 has a 200 MHz lower base frequency and also the frequency of one (4450 MHz) and all cores (4400 MHz), unless the processor’s power draw is limited by its TDP (65 W). The PPT limit is 76 W. At this limit, under high load, the processors’ frequencies are reduced and meet at 4.3 GHz.

In lower, typically gaming workloads, the Ryzen 5 5600 is slower in frequency, but also more efficient. Otherwise, the 5600 is no different from the 5600X. It, too, has six cores with twelve threads, and the included Wraith Stealth cooler is sufficient to cool the CPU with ease, and it doesn’t even have to be noisy apart from during maximum load.

Of course, more important than the comparison across models from its own lineup will be how the Ryzen 5 5600 holds up against the Core i5-12400F in the tests. In terms of competitive battle, AMD’s cheapest 6-core processor is the closest to it. Which processor is better or worse at what, you’ll find out in the following chapters of the article full of useful results.

• Contents
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600 in detail
• Methodology: performance tests
• Methodology: how we measure power draw
• Methodology: temperature and clock speed tests
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
• Borderlands 3
• Counter-Strike: GO
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DOOM Eternal
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• Overall gaming performance
• Gaming performance per euro
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
• Fotky 1/2: Adobe Photoshop a Lightroom
• Fotky 2/2: Affinity Photo, Topaz Labs AI Apps, ZPS X, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• Processor power draw curve
• Average processor power draw
• Performance per watt
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• Conclusion